Challenging Mom

It’s so much easier to challenge others than oneself.  Last night I asked Mom what she had learned that day and she said “nothing” so I told her she had to learn something new today.  When I got home I got more than I bargained for as she stood waiting on the steps in great agitation.  She began by asking me to look at her neck.  Naturally I did so but with growing trepidation as I am not the fearless Nurse Annie type.  Her neck did look a little red but I was distracted by her telling me the story of her day.  First she went to the pharmacist and showed her neck and then she came home and then she went back to the doctor’s who proceeded to tell her not to take any more of her pills.   This set up a whole new wave of alarm for me since she has a whole pharmacy of pills that she takes religiously every morning.  Was I going to have a walking zombie in the house in a couple of days?  Then she tells me, in amongst the continuing story of not taking the pills, that the doctor says allergies can spring from anywhere at any time of life.  This I already knew but I was still harking back to the “no pills” part of the story.  She was thinking of not taking her sleeping pills?  I’ve lived with her not getting a good nights sleep and I am seriously worried.  Somehow I feel it’s essential for her to have a good night’s sleep in order for me to have a good night’s sleep.

       By the time I had everything sorted out I was able to look at her neck and yes, see that it was covered with a rash.  So I asked her the same questions that my sister, my brother, the pharmacist and the doctor asked her.  No, she hadn’t eaten anything different, she hadn’t used anything different, nothing was different.  Then where the heck did hte rash come from?  Both of us are now looking suspiciously at the flies swarming around us, fruit flies as we thought.  They’ve been around the house for a few weeks now.

       But are they fruit flies?????

       Oh, and as I finished my supper Mom said in triumph “You said I had to do three new things today well I’ve done a lot more than that what with going back and forth to town and then washing every stitch of clothing in my room.”  I couldn’t help but laugh.